Connect with us

Latest news

Tony Barnes announced as co-founder of metaverse studio, Karta

Published

on

 

Karta, a fast-growing metaverse studio pioneering the world of in-game experiential marketing for musicians, brands and sports teams, has announced ex-Virgin EMI Records senior director and music industry veteran Tony Barnes as its co-founder.

Founded in 2021 by Barnes and CEO Erik Londré, Karta helps connect brands with billions of people that inhabit the world’s most popular video games and virtual worlds. The startup is on a mission to make the metaverse accessible and effective for all brands across all platforms. Since its launch, Karta has delivered successful projects across Roblox, Fortnite and Decentraland for the likes of Amazon Music, Fnatic, Unilever and Ronald McDonald House. Karta recently built the first persistent fan hub on Roblox for female K-Pop megastars TWICE, in collaboration with JYP Entertainment, Republic Records and Universal Music Group.

Hailing from a stellar 18-year career in music, Barnes is widely regarded as a digital-marketing pioneer. As an early torchbearer for streaming platforms, Tony devised award-winning digital strategies, introduced influencer marketing to music campaigns and was among the first music execs to collaborate with and champion Tiktok. Rising to senior digital positions at Universal Music, Virgin EMI and Hipgnosis, he’s worked on campaigns for hundreds of artists including global superstars Queen, Katy Perry, Sir Elton John, Shakira, Kanye West, Florence & The Machine and Halsey, as well as dance music legends Avicii, David Guetta, Tiesto and Eric Prydz. He also helped to launch the careers of artists such as Emeli Sande, Jonas Blue and James Bay, and played a key role in the success of Swedish House Mafia. Furthermore, Tony is a forward-thinker who chaired the 2020 Brit Awards Digital Committee which smashed previous online records and brokered the first deal between Tiktok and the BRITs, heavily featuring Lewis Capaldi.

Tony Barnes, co-founder of Karta, commented: “Erik and I started Karta with a simple mission – to help artists and brands connect with the vast number of people that are playing and socialising in video games and virtual worlds. Over the past few years we have witnessed the growing momentum in  cross-industry collaboration between gaming and music, for example, starting with Marshmello’s unpredictable success in 2019 with the first Fortnite in-game concert, which became the cornerstone that led to other in-game activations from Travis Scott, Lil Nas X, Ariana Grande and many more. But we see a world beyond one-off activations, where artists can harness the metaverse as an evergreen channel to grow and connect with their community. I am so excited to continue building Karta alongside Erik and our incredible team of passionate music lovers and life-long gamers.”

Advertisement

With Tony’s valuable music industry knowledge, he aims to help create unforgettable experiences for brands to immerse themselves into the metaverse space. Karta approaches every challenge with a marketers mindset and proves that the metaverse isn’t a temporary farce; it’s the real deal that delivers real world, tangible results. Backed by decades of experience across music and gaming, Karta identifies key trends to challenge the way artists deliver exciting in-game activations to their audience.

Erik Londré, CEO and founder of Karta added: “The metaverse isn’t a vision of the future, it’s happening right now, and Karta is here to connect artists with their audience and bring them closer than ever before. It is the most exciting collision of music, art, youth culture and technology and we have just scraped the surface of what this will offer the music industry. So having Tony, an incredible marketer and creative that knows the world of music inside and out is extremely valuable, to us but more importantly – our clients.”

For more information, go to https://www.karta.game/.

Gaming and Entertainment Europe

Fractured Sanity released on Steam and Meta Quest – Dive into an intense VR horror experience

Published

on

 

Brazilian Studio United Games is thrilled to announce the release of their horror VR adventure game Fractured Sanity. The team was going full steam to make the last changes to the game and add language options before today’s launch on Steam and Meta Quest’s App Lab.

“We’ve added Portuguese, Spanish and Simplified Chinese to the language options, and there’s an exciting new trailer out to get people pumped. We’re working day and night to iron out the kinks – we’re all very excited and focused on making the game more accessible!” – Gabriel Marques, Co-creator of Fractured Sanity

UPCOMING PICO 4 SUPPORT

Not only that, but the team has received an exciting new task: they’ve confirmed the game will be supported on the PICO4 platform, which along with the new language options, marks an expansion into the Chinese market. The release date for the PICO 4 version has yet to be announced, but VR and horror fans can expect it soon after today’s release on Steam VR and Meta Quest.

We’re super stoked that the Chinese market has demonstrated interest in the game. Guess everybody likes horror games!” – Gustavo Longhi, Co-creator of Fractured Sanity

Advertisement

Fractured Sanity is a single-player game developed exclusively for VR where all mechanics and puzzles are realistic and interactive. In this survival horror game, you will engage in a thrilling story and uncover the dark truth about the psychiatric clinic runned by Dr. Simmons who has been conducting research into how to break someone’s id, ego and superego apart.

Fractured Sanity is looking better than ever, with an amount of detail that will leave players of all kinds immersed, tense, intrigued and – of course – trembling with fear!

Check out Fractured Sanity’s new launch trailer:

Get Fractured Sanity on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1954840/Fractured_Sanity/

Get Fractured Sanity on Oculus App Lab: https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/5347273738669610/

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Artificial Intelligence

XLA REVEALS ‘METASITES’ 3D INTERNET FRAMEWORK

Published

on

 

XLA, a community-driven organization of video game and entertainment industry professionals, will today announce ‘Metasites’; a modular 3D internet framework leveraging metaverse, cloud, and AI technologies.

Funded with an initial $100M USD, XLA Metasites empowers users to transform virtual worlds by creating unique content. XLA Chief Product Officer Alexey Savchenko will present a demo of Metasites at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco this afternoon during a panel called “Emerging Approaches: What the Metaverse can teach us about Social and Narrative Design through Synthetic Media”.

The presentation will reveal Metasites’ high fidelity graphics, core experience, instant access to the system in the cloud through the browser, OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 integration powering non-active characters and their behavior, virtual assistant IVEE, ability to semantically analyze text and generate 3D scenes in UE5, and many other features. Metasites allows creators to deploy Unreal Engine 5 content and connect to the XLA ecosystem of features and services.

“We call them Metasites, and the idea here is that every one of these locations is part of an infinite network of 3D, explorable spaces. Like hyperlinks, portals connect these worlds, and the core infrastructure operates on a series of open protocols and standards – much like today’s web,” Savchenko will say. “We strongly believe that the future of the internet is in 3D and are looking to partner up with creators and brands from all spheres and industries to build it together.”

Advertisement

Access to Metasites for individual creators and enterprise clients will be based on a revenue share model, providing every user full control and management of their content. Users can access virtual assets and various tools, including a versatile SDK, experiences editor, inventory and item management system, payment processing, marketing tools, and more. XLA also aims to provide a seamlessly interoperable encounter related to digital items – with various functionalities connected to inventory objects within different environments.

“What we’re creating,” Savchenko will say, “is an evolution of the internet and new form of storytelling – authors shaping worlds that create their agency, presence, and stories, accessible across multiple platforms. It’s not about bringing games to new audiences. It’s about making it easier to communicate, educate, commerce, play, and create while being justly rewarded for your actions.”

Metasites will be revealed at GDC at 4:40 PM PDT in Room 24, West Hall, Moscone Center, alongside Hexagram Founder and CEO Rob Auten. The framework is set for closed beta in summer 2023, with enterprise and creators programs opening next quarter and full commercial release expected in Q4 2023.

Continue Reading

Gaming and Entertainment Europe

Leading Metaverse Game, Runiverse, Announces Collaboration With Polygon

Published

on

 

Runiverse, a leading metaverse gaming platform, has announced its collaboration with Polygon to deliver an unmatched gaming experience to players. The announcement is the first step in Runiverse’s roadmap to bring exciting developments and events to the Polygon community.

Runiverse, powered by their utility token $RUNY, combines blockchain gaming with crypto knowledge, requiring players to understand how the crypto market is performing and then act accordingly to win. Gamers can translate their crypto knowledge into tangible rewards through fast-paced and dynamic gameplay that blends luck, strategy, and creativity. The platform leverages real-time data from Binance, offering a run-to-earn experience where players’ speed is determined by market performance. Players can earn rewards through rallies and by holding Runiverse’s Player Skins and Tracks NFTs.

Polygon blockchain, the leading Layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, has been a driving force in Web3, providing scalable, affordable, secure, and sustainable blockchain infrastructure. Polygon has recently been the blockchain of choice for industry leaders such as The Walt Disney Company, Reddit, Starbucks, Meta, and more due to the low fees, fast transactions, and interoperability with other blockchains such as Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum.

“We believe that gaming is more than just entertainment, and it can drive blockchain adoption and innovation. With Polygon’s support, we plan to expand our reach and provide players with an innovative ecosystem that fosters creativity and community.” Said Gip Cutrino, COO of Runiverse.

Advertisement

The collaboration between Runiverse and Polygon signals the commitment to bring new events and opportunities to the Gamefi community, contributing to the growth and adoption of Web3 gaming.

Continue Reading

Trending

Get it on Google Play

Copyright © 2022 The Virtual World Today (VWT). Registered in Romania under Proshirt SRL, Company number: 2134306, EU VAT ID: RO21343605. Office address: Blvd. 1 Decembrie 1918 nr.5, Targu Mures, Romania